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In Zimbabwe, Mugabe razes more than slums

By Michael Wines The New
York Times

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2005

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has one word for
reports that Operation Drive Out Trash, an urban-demolition campaign aimed
at slum dwellers that his government describes as a civic beautification
program, has rendered thousands of his impoverished citizens
homeless.

"Nonsense," he told ABC News in an interview
broadcast in the United States on Nov. 3. "Thousands and thousands and
thousands and thousands. Where are the thousands? You go there now and see
whether those thousands are there. Where are they? A figment of their
imagination."

Perhaps Mugabe has not been to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's
second-largest city, lately.

Just five kilometers, or three
miles, west of the center of Bulawayo, Robson Tembo and his wife, Ticole,
live in the open air in a small pen, 3.5 meters by 3.5 meters, or 12 feet by
12 feet, built of deadwood and scrap. Rows of plastic grocery sacks hold the
collected assets of their 72 years.

Eight kilometers north,
Nokuthula Dube, 22, her two daughters and two orphaned relatives are
squatting in an unfinished two-room house of cinder blocks. During a
reporter's recent visit, an unidentified woman lay curled up on the concrete
floor of the house's only closet, sleeping.

On the other side of
town, Gertrude Moyo, 28, lives with her four children and seven other
families in tents, pitched in the bush.

More than simple
homelessness binds the three families. Until a few months ago, they all
lived in Killarney, a shantytown that had housed Bulawayo's less fortunate
citizens since the early 1980s.

Today, Killarney is a moonscape of
sunbaked dirt, scrub and burned-out rubble. Last May and June, police
officers reduced its huts to wreckage, burned the remains and routed the
area's more than 800 residents as part of Operation Drive Out
Trash.

"They had iron bars as long as this," Robson Tembo said of
the police, stretching his arms wide. "They demolished part of every hut,
and then they told us to destroy the rest."

He said he refused,
and so the police finished the job, leveling his two-room home built of
wooden poles and metal walls.

More than five months after the
demolitions began, Zimbabwe's government continues to insist that the
destruction of 133,000 households, by its own count, was a long-overdue
slum-clearance effort that has caused its citizens only temporary
inconvenience.

The government contends that the vast bulk of those
made homeless have been relocated to the rural villages where they lived
before migrating to the cities, mostly to look for work. Others, it says,
will be placed in thousands of new homes being built to replace the illegal
huts that have been razed.

Mugabe has rejected the United
Nations's attempt to raise $30 million to aid the victims of Operation Drive
Out Trash on the ground that Zimbabwe has no crisis. Despite a public appeal
by the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, on Oct. 31, the government has
rejected any assistance that implies that its evicted citizens are in
distress.

Yet many are in great distress. Relying on the estimates
of Zimbabwe's government, the United Nations says 700,000 persons were
displaced by the May and June demolitions and a later campaign, Operation
Going Forward, No Turning Back, in which police officers routed those who
tried to return to the cities and rebuild.

An August survey of
more than 23,000 Zimbabwe households by the South Africa-based advocacy
group ActionAid International places the number of those made homeless as
high as 1.2 million - more than 1 in 10 Zimbabweans.

Where many
have gone is a mystery. The government carted thousands to holding camps
that were later disbanded, and transported thousands more by trucks into the
countryside and left them there, ostensibly near their rural homes. Those
people are registered with local officials, but almost certainly, they are
but a fraction of the total.

So where are the
homeless?

"This remains what I'd call an invisible humanitarian
crisis - invisible to international eyes, the reason being that those who
were displaced have been dispersed," said David Mwaniki, who oversees
ActionAid's work in Zimbabwe.

Many are probably with relatives;
a few have fled the country.

Others are in the bush, surviving off
the kindness of neighbors. Many more have vanished into hovels, tents or
half-built houses.

The United Nations says 32,000 of Bulawayo's
675,000 residents lost their homes and were ordered to leave the city during
the demolition campaign; city officials put the number at 45,000. Torden
Moyo, who directs an alliance of local civic groups called Bulawayo Agenda,
says there is no doubt where they have gone.

"Ninety-five
percent are now back," he said. "They're still struggling, still homeless,
still penniless, still shelterless. They've been made refugees in their own
country."

Killarney is proof of that. Before the demolitions, it
was dirt-poor but thriving, subdivided into three villages with stores and
services. All that has been razed and burned. Northeast of town, not far off
the road to Bulawayo's airport, 10 stunted cornstalks and some greens grow
in a makeshift plot outside the unfinished house where Dube and her family
are staying, but the five of them live on donated cornmeal from a nearby
church.

Dube returned from her niece's school in June to find her
home in Killarney's Village One wrecked and on fire. Homeless and pregnant,
she lost her housecleaning job in a nearby suburb. Her husband, Nomen Moyo,
had to move away to keep his job as a gardener. Dube said she and the
children walked for a week, sleeping by the road, before finding the shell
where they now live.

In September, Dube had a daughter,
Mtokhozisi. She left her 3-year-old daughter, Nomathembe, and the two
orphans, 10-year-old Pentronella and 14-year-old Kevin, alone while she gave
birth in a local hospital. She walked home from the hospital with her
newborn.

"I left in the morning," she said, "and arrived around
3."

A few weeks ago, a man appeared.

"He wants us to
leave," she said. "He's claiming that this is his house."

Asked
where they would go, she said, "Only God knows."

Across town, Moyo,
who lived in Killarney for 23 years before being driven out on June 11,
lives in a three-meter by five-meter tent with her four children. Her
husband died a year ago. She said the police first took the family to a
transit camp for the homeless, then to the tent. Moyo said she was told to
wait for a new home.

The government is building a row of houses
next to her tent, and says they are for those who lost their homes in the
demolitions. But Moyo said the police had told her that her family was going
not to a new home, but to a plot of farmland north of
town.

Tsvangirai says rivals bought by Mugabe

Zim Online

Mon 14 November
2005

BULAWAYO - Zimbabwean main opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Sunday accused his
vice-president Gibson Sibanda and other top MDC leaders of having been
bribed by the government to destabilise the six-year old party.

In a sign of widening and clearly irreconcilable differences in the
opposition party, Tsvangirai also announced the expulsion of 26 MDC members
contesting the November 26 senate election in open defiance of his call to
boycott the poll.

Addressing a rally to drum grassroots support
for his anti-senate campaign in Zimbabwe's second largest city of Bulawayo,
Tsvangirai said: "I find it sad that Gibson Sibanda, a close associate of
mine for over 20 years, chose to rebel against me. But it is not surprising
because we know that his faction was bribed to destabilise the MDC by ZANU
PF (President Robert Mugabe's ruling party)."

Tsvangirai, who only last week told foreign diplomats in Harare that efforts
were underway to unite his divided party, told the meeting: "All those who
defied the directive (to boycott election) are no longer members of the
party.

"That's a simple issue, but it is our hope that Sibanda and
his group will finally see reason and part ways with ZANU PF. We sincerely
hope that they will come back and be part of us."

The rally was
attended by about 3 000 people, a far cry from the multitudes that
Tsvangirai used to address in Bulawayo before divisions in the
MDC.

MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi - among other top leaders who
have revolted against Tsvangirai, immediately shot back at his party leader,
accusing him of being an dictator whom Zimbabweans should not be burdened
with as their president.

Nyathi, who also said Tsvangirai's
expulsion of the 26 MDC senate candidates was unconstitutional and void,
said: "I think it is becoming clear to many people that Tsvangirai is not
fit to lead this country, everybody is left with no doubt whatsoever that
Zimbabwe is one country which should not be burdened with this man as its
president."

He added: "The purported expulsion of those who stand
as senators (candidates for the senate) is null and void, that is vintage
Tsvangirai, breaking the constitution yet again, breaking the procedures
within the MDC."

The MDC, which until now had appeared
Zimbabweans' only alternative to Mugabe's government, has virtually split
into two rival factions after disagreeing over whether to contest the
election to create a senate that critics - including both factions of the
opposition party - agree will only be there to extend Mugabe's patronage
network.

Tsvangirai rejected a narrow vote last month by the MDC's
national council - its most powerful decision-making body outside congress -
for the party to contest the election.

In rejecting the vote,
Tsvangirai said the MDC could not waste time contesting an election that was
certain to be rigged by Mugabe and ZANU PF. He said it would be hypocritical
for the MDC to join the senate when the party had vehemently opposed a
controversial constitutional amendment providing for the creation of an
upper house that was forced through Parliament by ZANU PF.

The
MDC leader, who insists the party wants what he calls a people-driven and
wholesale constitutional reform process to deliver a new and democratic
constitution for Zimbabwe, also says the senate is a waste of resources for
a country that should be focusing its efforts on fighting hunger threatening
a quarter of its 12 million people.

But a faction of the opposition
party led by secretary general Welshman Ncube - although Sibanda has been
publicly shown as the leader of this faction - strongly opposed Tsvangirai
insisting the MDC should contest the senate poll after its council voted for
the party to do so.

The Ncube faction also argues that in
attempting to single handedly overturn the decision of the council,
Tsvangirai was showing the same dictatorial traits that Mugabe is accused
of. The pro-senate faction has successfully sponsored candidates in 26 of
the 50 senate constituencies.

But the dispute between the two MDC
factions has also assumed an ethnic dimension with Tsvangirai strongly
supported in Harare and other areas dominated by his Shona tribe. Ncube is
strongly supported in Bulawayo and other areas populated by his Ndebele
tribe.

Most top leaders of the MDC in Bulawayo, including city
executive mayor Japhet Ndabeni Ncube, boycotted Tsvangirai's
rally.

Among top officials of the party who attended the rally were
party women's wing leader Lucia Matibenga, national youth chairman Nelson
Chamisa, national chairman Isaac Matongo, economic affairs secretary Tendai
Biti, legislator Tapiwa Mashakada and Thokozani Khuphe, who is legislator
for Makokoba constituency in the city.

There were minor
incidents of violence outside the rally venue when pro-Tsvangirai youths
clashed with about a dozen youths whom they did not want at the rally,
accusing them of belonging to the Ncube faction. But the police were swift
to quell the skirmishes.

But Short Wave Radio Africa reports that a
ward chairman in Bulawayo's Nkulumane constituency, Samuel Musaka, lost his
front teeth when he was brutally assaulted by pro-Ncube youths last
Friday.

The radio quoted MDC national executive member for
Bulawayo, Gertrude Mtombeni, as saying that Sibanda's official driver led
the assault on Musaka, who was ambushed and attacked on his way to the
central railway station to collect fliers and posters for Tsvangirai's
Sunday rally. - ZimOnline

Equipment, seed worth billions of dollars seized from white
farmers

Zim Online

Mon 14 November 2005

HARARE - The white Commercial
Farmers Union (CFU) says its members have lost equipment worth billions of
Zimbabwe dollars over the last two months after hordes of government
supporters and newly resettled farmers ransacked their
properties.

Hendrik Olivier, the CFU president told ZimOnline at
the weekend that the white farmers had lost equipment, chemicals and seed as
the chaos brought about by the new wave of farm invasions which began about
two months continues.

The CFU boss said the government
supporters were taking harrows, tractors, fertiliser and in some cases seed
from the remaining 600 white farmers across the country. The seizures were
said to be rampant in Masvingo, Midlands and Mashonaland West
provinces.

"Property worth billions of dollars has been lost but it
is difficult at the moment to put the exact value since the seizures are
ongoing and we are still receiving reports countrywide.

"Most
of the people seizing the equipment are A2 beneficiaries (newly resettled
black farmers) and they are taking advantage of the chaos on the farms
brought about by the recent constitutional changes," Olivier said.

The Zimbabwe government about two months ago passed controversial
constitutional changes which barred white farmers from contesting the
seizure of the properties in the courts.

The new amendments
triggered fresh farm seizures across the country with State Security
Minister Didymus Mutasa threatening to weed out all the remaining white
farmers in Zimbabwe.

Olivier also said the police were reluctant to
investigate the cases of theft on the farms.

"We have received
mixed reactions from the police but in most cases they simply ignore our
pleas to investigate the incidents," Olivier said.

Police
spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena could not be reached for comment on the
issue.

Zimbabwe is facing severe food shortages blamed on President
Robert Mugabe's seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to landless
blacks five years ago.

Zimbabwe official accused of issuing out police uniforms to
civilians

Zim Online

Mon 14 November 2005

GWANDA - A Zimbabwe government
minister was last week accused in court of unlawfully dressing 20 private
security guards in police uniform and sending them to evict illegal gold
panners from their panning site near Gwanda town which he then took
over.

An official of a private security firm in Gwanda, which lies
about 150km south of Zimbabwe's second largest city of Bulawayo, told a
magistrate's court that Deputy Labour Minister Abednico Ncube hired guards
from the company and dressed them in police uniform before unleashing them
on the gold panners.

Vengai Maphosa, who is a director of
Undercover Security firm, was testifying in court where he and his guards
are facing charges of illegally possessing and abusing police
uniforms.

He told the court that Ncube approached him seeking to
hire some guards. Maphosa, who was remanded out of custody, said that he did
not know that the deputy minister would issue police uniforms to the guards
in order that they would use the uniforms to scare off gold
panners.

Speaking to ZimOnline at the weekend Maphosa claimed that
he had only learnt of the abuse of police uniforms after his guards were
arrested by the real police who were coincidentally patrolling in the area
where the gold panners were supposed to be evicted.

"I told the
police that Ncube had hired the guards for a private mission. But when they
called him, he denied ever hiring the guards. He said he knew that the laws
of Zimbabwe were against such things," Maphosa said.

He said: "Those people are
lying. Ask the police, they have a full version of my comments on that. I do
not have access to police uniforms and I did not send anyone. Those arrested
in police uniform should say where they got the uniforms from."

Senior officials of President Robert Mugabe's government and ruling ZANU PF
party have in the past been accused of illegally dealing in precious
minerals especially gold.

But this is the first time that a
government minister is being accused of hiring private people and illegally
dressing them up as state police in order that they could scare off rivals
to a gold claim. - ZimOnline

Tsvangirai sends strong message to MDC

IOL

November 13 2005
at 06:07AM

Harare - The leader of Zimbabwe's main opposition party
says more than 20 members who plan to stand in next month's Senate election
effectively expel themselves from the party by doing so, the state-owned
Sunday Mail reported.

Last week, 26 Movement for Democratic
Change members who registered for the poll were given seven days to withdraw
their candidature but had not done so by Saturday and William Bango,
spokesperson for MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, said they had "automatically
expelled themselves from the party".

"Anyone who takes part in
an election without the consent of the national council will do so as an
independent and this is well known among party members," Bango told the
Sunday Mail.

The only real challenge to President Robert
Mugabe's rule has been undermined by an internal split since an announcement
by Tsvangirai last month that it would boycott voting on November 26 for the
new Senate.

The Senate is seen by critics as intended to bolster
Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF and Tsvangirai says the election will no doubt
be rigged to ensure a Zanu-PF win.

Tsvangirai maintains the
party was evenly split over whether to participate in the poll and he used
his presidential authority to boycott. But some senior MDC officials denied
that and accused Tsvangirai of unilaterally dictating party
policy.

Some members of the party have chosen to run for just over
half of the 50 seats up for grabs in the 66-seat chamber anyway, plunging
the six-year-old MDC into its worst crisis to date. Mugabe will appoint six
senators while the remaining 10 will be reserved for local
chiefs.

The "expulsion" could scupper efforts to reconcile the two
factions.

Bango was not immediately available for comment on
Sunday.

But MDC Deputy Secretary-General Gift Chimanikire, who
supports poll participation, told Reuters the 26 remained party members and
were proceeding with campaigning for the election in clear defiance to
Tsvangirai.

"Our October resolution that we take part in the
elections still stands and it is on that basis that MDC candidates are
preparing for the elections under the MDC banner," Chimanikire
said.

Tsvangirai last week said the MDC's decision-making national
council had met and reversed a "purported decision" it had taken in October
to participate in the elections, but Chimanikire and members of the
pro-election faction did not attend saying the opposition leader had no
authority to call the meeting.

Mugabe and Zanu-PF have faced
international sanctions and condemnation for allegedly rigging past
elections and using violence to intimidate voters. Mugabe denies the
charges.

Zim opposition dissidents expelled from party

Mail and Guardian

Harare,
Zimbabwe

13 November 2005 09:37

Twenty-six members of Zimbabwe's beleaguered opposition party who refused to
withdraw as candidates for this month's Senate elections have been expelled,
a spokesperson said on Sunday in a move likely to lead to a final split in
the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

In a telephone
interview, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai's spokesperson William Bango
confirmed reports in the state-run Sunday Mail that the officials had
"automatically expelled themselves".

Last weekend, the MDC
leader, who has faced a serious challenge to his leadership over the Senate
issue, gave 26 party members who had registered to stand as candidates in
the November 26 polls seven days to change their minds or be
expelled.

Tsvangirai is resolute against any participation in
the Senate, but other senior party officials do not
agree.

In October, the MDC leader overruled a vote by his
party's national council narrowly in favour of participation. But he managed
to secure a vote against participation during a second, controversial
meeting of the national council a week ago.

"When the
council makes a decision and gives a deadline, if that deadline is not
respected then they have to face the consequences," Bango
said.

According to the Sunday Mail, dissenting opposition
officials have no intention of falling in behind Tsvangirai. Many of those
who oppose the MDC leader are from the southern Matabeleland provinces,
which have traditionally been hotbeds of opposition.

The
MDC leader says participation in elections in Zimbabwe is useless because
the current electoral system "breeds illegitimate outcomes".

But party members from Matabeleland are believed to be unwilling to let
President Robert Mugabe's ruling party sweep all the Senate seats without a
fight.

There has been widespread speculation the six-year-old
party will split over the issue, despite Tsvangirai's promise earlier this
week that he had launched an internal "healing process". -- Sapa-DPA

Cops helping to strip
equipment from Zim farms

From The Sunday Argus (SA), 13 November

Catrina Kloppers, 75, is a rancher with 500
cattle in dry southern Zimbabwe, but more than 20 policemen armed with
AK-47s arrived this week at night, turned off the electricity, disconnected
her telephone, and loaded all her farming equipment onto lorries including
her only tractor and trailer. "When the rains come any day now the farm will
be so muddy I won't be able to get around to feed the calves," she said.
Kloppers, widowed 13 years ago, shares her ranch with a Zanu PF deputy
minister and an MP who helped themselves to two thirds of her land. They
need her to keep the boreholes running. Kloppers said: "They told me if I
complained they would take the borehole pumps. I told them the deputy
minister's cattle would die without water, so they left them. You can't be a
sissie in Zimbabwe, it's a hard life. I don't want to live anywhere else.
Zimbabwe is my home, although I am fully Afrikaans and I like the people
here."

Many influential Zanu PF leaders, such as reserve bank
governor Gideon Gono, are desperate for those white commercial farmers who
have survived six years of the ethnic purge, to remain and increase
production. He repeatedly says that increased agricultural production is the
only way to economic recovery. He also advanced loans to many of the farmers
now being evicted across the country. Lands minister Didymus Mutasa said he
didn't know of any of these developments on the land - the biggest number of
evictions and seizures of equipment since the height of the land wars in
2002. According to veteran political analyst Brian Raftopoulos, Zimbabwe is
in danger of becoming "ungovernable". He said: "The state has run out of
resources for patronage and there is discord over the policy and therefore
an intensification of state theft because of the general decline of the
economy. The battle is over who is in control. The ruling party is under
siege and the state will intensify its theft of resources and its
authoritarian responses."

Andrew McMurdon, 85, thought he had seen
the worst when President Robert Mugabe's thugs slung him into jail and
kicked him off his much loved farm three years ago. Now living in Masvingo,
250km south of Harare, close to where he farmed for 50 years, McMurdon has
become a victim again. Every day this week army and police were stealing
tens of millions of rands of white farmers' equipment claiming their looting
is legal. McMurdon's equipment, rescued when he lost his farm, was stored in
a Masvingo warehouse and was stolen by police this week. This week, police
roamed across Masvingo province and southward towards the South African
border hunting down farmers' equipment. They tell white farmers it is being
done in terms of last year's Acquisition of Farm Equipment or Material Act
which allows the government to seize equipment but stipulates that
compensation must be paid. Farmers know Mugabe's pledges of compensation are
meaningless. As annual inflation topped 400% this week and food prices shot
up by 80% in a month, Zimbabwe is on its knees and millions are hungry. Many
of Mugabe's militants who launched the violent campaign against commercial
farmers and millions of workers are also being kicked off land they claimed
to make way for Zanu PF bigwigs.

Matongo claims plot to kill Tsvangirai

New Zimbabwe

By Lebo
NkatazoLast updated: 11/14/2005 04:39:32SQUABBLES within Zimbabwe's main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) took a dramatic turn Sunday
when the opposition party's national chairman, Isaac Matongo, accused the
pro-Senate faction of plotting to kill party leader Morgan
Tsvangirai.

Addressing a crowd of 2000 people at White City Stadium in
Bulawayo, Matongo also accused a faction -- said to be led by MDC secretary
general Welshman Ncube -- of colluding with Zanu PF over the 2002 treason
charges against Tsvangirai.

However, Tsvangirai appeared to be in a
conciliatory mood, saying the door was still wide open for the two parties
to work together if the other one withdrew from the Senatorial
polls.

He also criticised his deputy, Gibson Sibanda -- who is also
advocating for the MDC to field candidates in Senate elections -- for openly
attacking him in the media, but added that he regretted that they were now
clashing.

"If we have a problem in our bedroom, it is not good to do what
VP Sibanda is doing telling everybody about it. Let's sit down and discuss
these problem ourselves," he said.

"I have worked with Sibanda for
over 20 years for this struggle and it pains me to see how this relationship
has come to this point," he added.

Tsvangirai reiterated that MDC Senate
hopefuls who defied his call to withdraw their candidature by last weekend's
deadline had automatically expelled themselves from the party.

"Those
who failed to meet Saturday's deadline have expelled themselves from the
party," Tsvangirai stressed.

The Bulawayo rally was also attended by MDC
MP for Makokoba Thokozani Khupe, Nelson Chamisa of Kuwadzana, city of Gweru
executive mayor Sessel Zvidzai and some notable Bulawayo city
councillors.

The MDC, founded in 1999, has split over Senate elections
due on 26 November. Tsvangirai supports a boycott of the elections, while
another faction supports participation -- arguing strongly that the MDC
needed to consolidate its hold in areas that it already controlled,
especially in the stronghold of Matabeleland.

In Chitungwiza just
outside Harare, the pro Senate group addressed a rally in Chitungwiza, near
Harare and vowed that they would forge ahead with participation.

MDC
deputy secretary-general Gift Chimanikire introduced the party candidates at
the gathering that was also attended by party heavyweights Job Sikhala,
Trudy Stevenson, Priscilla Misihairambwi-Mushonga and Renson
Gasela.

Chimanikire, who blasted Mafikizolos (recent arrivals) in the
MDC accusing them of causing chaos, said the opposition would participate to
defend its territories from the governing party.

Chimanikire scoffed
at the anti-Senate stance displayed by Tsvangirai saying the party leaders
persuaded two top party officials out of the March general elections on the
grounds he would permit them to run in the Senatorial
polls.

"Tsvangirai persuaded Morgan Femai and another official not to
take part in the March elections so that they would stand in the Senatorial
polls," Chamanikire said.

"He never informed anyone in the leadership
that the MDC was no longer going to stand in the polls," he
added.

Other legislators who also addressed the rally attended by an
estimated 3 000 supporters, denounced dictatorial tendencies within and
outside the MDC.

"I did not start politics
today, but when I was 16 years. Who are you to tell me to move out of the
MDC? I say to those denigrating me - mai vako (your mother), go and die,"
the outspoken MP said.

He then said St Mary's constituents have a right
to defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity when

Renson
Gasela said the MDC could only defend its domain from Zanu PF by taking part
in the polls.

"If Zanu PF win the Senate elections here, our MPs would be
supervised by that party's Senator. We must therefore defend our
territories, a good commander protects and secures what he has already
conquered," he said.

Glen Norah MP, Priscilla Misihairambwi-Mushonga
castigated "dictators in the party" while Stevenson urged party officials to
respect the constitution.

MDC breaks up

Zim Standard

By Walter Marwizi

THE pro - Senate
faction in the MDC is likely to boycott the congress scheduled for end of
February next year, leading to break up.

Sources in the party told The
Standard that reconciliation between the two factions was impossible because
of the intensity of the differences.The conflict reached a new peak last
week as Morgan Tsvangirai, buoyed by National Council meeting he called on 5
November in Harare, embarked on a tour drumming the message among the party
faithful that he was still in charge of the party.

In Mabvuku, he
said: "Ndoda kukuudzai pano kuti musangano uno une one president. Ndini.
Kana ndati tirikuinda takadai, ndookotoenda ikoko. Kana mazorumwa nemapere,
mozondivhunza" (I want to tell you right now the MDC has only one president.
I am its president. When I say this is the route we shall take, that is the
direction we will follow. If there is a cost, I am answerable).

Party
sources told The Standard the speech only served to widen the rift between
the factions.

While Tsvangirai is pushing for a boycott of the Senate
elections, 26 members of his party have registered to contest the 26
November poll.

"I don't see us going to congress together. I don't see it
happening. It's possible we might resign altogether, if we see that the
president is not willing to restore the founding principles of the party,"
said an official with the pro-Senate faction.

But MDC spokesperson
Paul Themba-Nyathi, who ignored a directive that Tsvangirai was the sole
spokesperson of the party, said his faction would not leave the
MDC.

"We would not do that. It is those that have placed themselves
outside the parameters of the party's constitution who should reconsider
their position in the party."

Trudy Stevenson, the party's secretary
for policy and research, said it was possible disciplinary action would be
taken against Tsvangirai.

"Yes, there might be action against the
President but it's up to the disciplinary committee. He has contravened the
constitution on several counts. How can you be leading a national crusade
for a national constitution when you are violating your own constitution?
It's illogical isn't it?"

Other officials in the pro-Senate faction
told The Standard that they could not see themselves sharing the same table
with Tsvangirai at the congress unless he reaffirmed his commitment to
democracy.

It is at the congress that Tsvangirai is expected to push for
an amendment to the constitution of the opposition party, to give him powers
over the party's national executive.

At the moment, aides to
Tsvangirai say he is hamstrung by a constitution which demands that he
consults each time he makes a decision.

The MDC constitution was designed
to ensure that "another Mugabe did not emerge in the party".

Already
Tsvangirai has given the go-ahead for the establishment of a constitutional
amendment committee, which will gather evidence from the provinces to form
the basis of the draft to be submitted to the congress.

But Themba-Nyathi
hopes reason will prevail and people will abandon plans to change the
party's constitution.

"We are very frightened that they want to change
the constitution so as to create a one-person rule. I am afraid some people
have not learnt from Zanu PF."

Asked whether they would go to
congress as one, Themba-Nyathi said:

"It will depend on whether those who
have created violent militias dismantle them and whether those who have
sought to turn the MDC into an instrument of intolerance desist from their
practices."

Shumba to lose Tele-Access over UMP links

TELEACCESS boss, Daniel Shumba, is set to lose the country's
second fixed operator's licence as punishment for his alleged involvement in
the United People's Movement (UPM), The Standard can reveal.

Shumba,
the former Zanu PF Masvingo provincial chairman was suspended from the
ruling party late last year after attending the Tsholotsho meeting that
rattled the ruling party, after six of the 10 provinces in the country
decided on who should succeed President Robert Mugabe.The meeting, which
came up with the so-called Tsholotsho Declaration, prompted Mugabe to purge
party stalwarts who reportedly tried to block Joice Mujuru from becoming
Vice President of Zimbabwe.

Thereafter Shumba, who was dominating
Masvingo politics, took a back seat in Zanu PF, concentrating his energies
on his company, which has failed to roll out its network due to crippling
foreign currency shortages.

However sources this week told The Standard
that State security agents had placed Shumba under surveillance after
suspecting that he was heavily involved in the UPM, which is being fronted
by Tsholotsho MP, Professor Jonathan Moyo.

The agent had also
recommended that his licence be withdrawn since a member of the opposition
could not be entrusted to run such an enterprise which would compete with
the State- run TelOne.

Apart from placing full page advertisements and
coming up with a CD, titled We will rock them, which has been widely
circulated, UPM has been mum on its membership.

There were
suggestions that disgruntled Zanu PF supporters and those from the MDC would
join it and launch a formidable challenge to the ruling party.

Shumba,
who is reported to be UPM's interim chairperson, could not be reached for
comment last week as he was locked up in a shareholders'
meeting.

However, The Standard understands that pressure is mounting
on the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe
(Potraz) to urgently withdraw the licence from him.

Asked to comment
on reports that State security agencies had recommended that Shumba's
licence be withdrawn, Potraz director general Cuthbert Chidoori said in a
written response on Friday: "No comment."

TeleAcess was awarded a second
fixed network licence in 2003 after the Supreme Court dismantled the state
owned Posts and Telecommunications Corporations (PTC)
monopoly.

However, the organisation has failed to roll out the project
mainly due to forex shortages. Early this year, TeleAccess tried
unsuccessfully to raise $150 billion earmarked for the roll out the multi
billion-dollar project. The withdrawal of the licence will impact on its
bankers CBZ who have been financing the day-to day operations.

Nyasha
Makuvise, CBZ CEO, told a parliamentary portfolio committee that TeleAccess
would embark on tobacco farming to raise the requisite foreign currency. The
outcome of the farming venture is still to be made public.

HIV/Aids treatment scandal

Zim Standard

By Foster
Dongozi

NEARLY one million Zimbabweans in urgent need of treatment cannot
access the life-saving Anti-Retroviral drugs, The Standard has been
told.

People living with HIV and AIDS face certain death as they are
unable to get ARVs from government referral hospitals such as Parirenyatwa,
Harare, Mpilo in Bulawayo, and Chitungwiza.Activists and advocacy
specialists in the fight against HIV and AIDS met last week and recommended
that the government treat the HIV and AIDS pandemic as a national
emergency.

Official figures, say up to 700 000 out of just over two
million people living with HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe, are in urgent need of
ARVs.

However, only 12 000 Zimbabweans are on ARVs.

Under the
Global Fund scheme an estimated 270 000 people should by now be accessing
ARVs.

AIDS service organizations have, as a result, started working on a
petition, on the apparent failure to take the distribution of the
life-saving drugs seriously, which will be presented to President Robert
Mugabe.

Mary Sandasi, the director of Women and AIDS Support Network
(WASN) said the government needed to show that it was serious about
combating the pandemic and providing treatment.

Sandasi said: "The
government has already declared that the HIV/AIDS pandemic is an emergency
and therefore the petition is meant to make sure the leadership treats the
issue like an emergency."

Continued delays in availing treatment, the
anti-AIDS activist said, would result in the ruling class leading a country
of orphans.

She said the petition would be copied to the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Health and Child
Welfare.

Sandasi fears people living with HIV and AIDS could start
developing resistance to ARVs because of interruption to
supplies.

However, the CEO of Parirenyatwa, Thomas Zigora, said ARVs were
being distributed at the hospital.

He said: "As of now the
Opportunistic Infections Clinic at Parirenyatwa has a register of up to 250
infants and 300 plus adults who are accessing ARVs. Those on the register
are getting the drugs."

Another AIDS activist, Sostain Moyo of the
Zimbabwe Activists on HIV and AIDS (ZAHA), said: "Thousands of people will
soon be dying when the effect of not getting AIDS drugs becomes apparent. A
lot of these people will die because they would have developed resistance to
the ARV drugs."

Moyo also implored international organizations not to
abandon people living with HIV and AIDS because of differences with the
Zimbabwean administration.

"HIV/AIDS does not discriminate along
political lines. Our neighbours in the region are getting a lot of ARVs and
we hope the international community will not continue to shun us because of
political differences."

The deputy minister of Health, Edwin Muguti said
the lack of foreign currency had affected the operations of most aspects of
the economy.

"Our economy is not operating at 100 percent capacity and
that means some areas will be affected like fuel supply and the provision of
drugs. There is no doubt that there is need to increase the number of people
on ARVs but with insufficient funding, that will always present challenges.
We hope our partners like UNAIDS, UNICEF and WHO will complement our efforts
to ensure as many people as possible access the drugs."

Policemen loot farm equipment

MASVINGO - Police and war veterans in Masvingo last week looted
farm equipment worth more than $15 billion from a commercial farm, four
years after the farm was invaded, The Standard has learnt.

The owner
of the farm and equipment, Tilma Pepler, told The Standard that riot police
led by Assistant Commissioner Loveness Ndanga pounced on his Rhodene home
where he has kept the equipment since his eviction from the farm. He said
they "looted" all the equipment."Police and people I suspect to be war
veterans came and seized all my farming equipment. They said it was an order
from the government. They were led by assistant commissioner L Ndanga,"
Pepler said.

When he was evicted in 2001 the government instructed farm
owners to remove their machinery. However, he was surprised when the police
came for the same equipment he was ordered to remove from his former
property.

Police took the equipment to Phoenix club, a police-owned
recreational facility in Rhodene low-density suburb.

When The
Standard visited Phoenix, piles of disc harrows, planters, five tractors and
other farming equipment were waiting to be auctioned.

"I really don't
understand what is happening. Since the time I was pushed off my farm I have
been assisting new farmers using this equipment as a means for fending for
my family. They could hire my equipment here and there and it was very
helpful to them but now the equipment is gone," he said.

Pepler said he
was pursuing legal action through the help of the Commercial Farmers'
Union.

The reports in Masvingo come at the same time that a farmer in
Chiredzi, Peter Henning, reported a similar raid on his two properties at
Hippo Valley, after a visit by Ndanga.

He said: "Last Saturday two
armed police details were deployed on our Farm 36 to 'guard' the equipment
kept there. We could not get clarification for the motivation at the
time."

But two more armed officers were deployed on Farm 40, a
residential stand, with a workshop where the Hennings live and keep their
machinery. He said the armed officers said they had been deployed to prevent
him from moving his equipment out of the yard.

Only two weeks ago,
Vice President Joseph Msika attacked war veterans in Bulawayo for continued
farm invasions on the few remaining commercial farms.

Officers in the
Masvingo Press and Public Relations office said they were not aware of the
cases.

Senior Air Force officer nabbed in gold sting

Zim Standard

By our
correspondent

A STING operation by police working under Operation Recover
Gold netted a senior Air Force of Zimbabwe officer in Kadoma, The Standard
can reveal.

Wing Commander Chrispen Nkomo (50), was arrested by CID
officers after he and an accomplice allegedly loaded up $437 850 000 into
the boot of his car in Kadoma.The money had been paid by undercover
police detectives who pretended to be gold buyers.

Nkomo, and another
accused person, Wellington Joshua Dube Gadzira (28) appeared in court on
Wednesday accused of theft by false pretences.

According to the State
case, on October 28 this year, detectives on patrol in Chakari area met
Gadzira who claimed to have in his possession 1kg of gold. An agreement to
buy the gold was reached.

On 5 November, Gadzira phoned Detective
Inspector Henry Dowa and arranged to meet at Kadoma Ranch Motel as he had
417 grams of "gold".

Sources in the police said the detectives then went
to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe where they were given new bank notes
amounting to $437 850 000 in order to set up a trap.

Nkomo who uses a
service vehicle, Peugeot 306 registration number 325MM01 drove from Chakari
to Kadoma Ranch Motel in the company of Gadzira. Around 9PM, Gadzira called
Inspector Dowa on his mobile phone and Nkomo went into the bar while his
accomplice was concluding the transaction with the detectives.

Dowa
is said to have indicated that he was prepared to buy 417 grams at $1 050
000 a gram and he paid for it using the RBZ money.

The two assisted each
other to carry the bag which contained the cash to where their vehicle was
parked, because the detectives had indicated that they wanted the bag
back.

The two appeared before a Kadoma magistrate Mr Claudious Chimaga on
Wednesday where Gadzira was granted $5 million bail.

But Dumisani
Kufaruwenga of Dzimba, Javaraza and Associates successfully made an
application of refusal to place Nkomo on remand.

Kufaruwenga argued in
court that the Air Force officer was not aware of the deal.

Pupils faint in class as hunger gnaws

HUNDREDS of children are dropping out of school while others are
fainting during lessons, mostly in the country's rural areas, as hunger
takes toll, The Standard has been told.

Teachers' organisations last
week expressed concern over the increasing number of school children who are
dropping out of school because of hunger. They said some pupils were passing
out during lessons because of hunger, after going for days without a proper
meal.MaCdonald Mangauzani, the Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe
(PTUZ) acting secretary general, said the increasing number of pupils
dropping out of school because of hunger had become a major
concern.

As a result, Mangauzani said, PTUZ is conducting research to
establish the exact number of pupils that have dropped out of school because
of widespread hunger prevalent in the country.

"Quite a huge number
of children are dropping out of school because they are too hungry and their
parents can no longer afford to buy food. The problem is worsening on a
daily basis. There are some reports of pupils passing out during classes,"
said Mangauzani.

Zimbabwe Teachers' Association (Zimta) president, Tendai
Chikowore, said although her organisation had not done any survey on pupils
dropping out, it had become common knowledge that the worsening economic
situation was forcing pupils out of school.

"Even those who work here
in town are facing food problems. What more of people in rural areas?
Generally life is tough nowadays. Remember, the cost of commodities is going
up daily and this is affecting everyone," said Chikowore.

Dropping
out of school as a result of hunger and general poverty, is most common in
the perennially dry parts of the country. Preliminary findings by the PTUZ
indicate that Chiredzi, Mt Darwin and some parts of Manicaland are the most
seriously affected areas.

The PTUZ said the economic downturn had
exacerbated the problem as parents struggled to raise enough money for
school fees and levies for their children.

Mangauzani said the
dropout rates could have been lower had the government allowed
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to distribute food relief to needy
families countrywide.

Although hunger is most pronounced in rural areas,
more and more urban families are also failing to send their children to
school as poverty takes root.

"Some pupils in towns have cut the
number of days they go to school because they cannot afford the high
transport costs," noted Mangauzani.

Teachers who spoke to The Standard in
Harare said even though the numbers of pupils dropping out because of hunger
in the capital city was still low, they could soon rise as the economic
environment worsens.

Both the Minister of Education Sport and Culture
Aeneas Chigwedere and his permanent secretary, Stephen Mahere, were said to
be out of the office last week.

"Address your questions to the
Quality Assurance Division at Ambassador House but you only get your answers
probably next week," his secretary said.

Revelations of children dropping
out of school because of hunger come at a time when the government has
barred NGOs from distributing relief aid to needy people. Zimbabwe, once
southern Africa's breadbasket, is facing a serious food crisis and an
estimated 5 million people are desperately in need of food aid.

NRZ management helpless as war vets terrorise staff

Zim Standard

By
Gibbs Dube

BULAWAYO - Management at the National Railways of Zimbabwe
(NRZ) headquarters here are virtually being held hostage by 11 war veterans
who set up a "crack force to clean up the mess" at the financially troubled
parastatal.

The war veterans, most of them not attached to the
parastatal headquarters, and led by Gibson Siziba, a maintenance auditor at
the NRZ's Mechanical workshops, are allegedly terrorising workers suspected
of involvement in corrupt practices.Siziba and his gang, who forcibly
occupied an office, are reported to have started their orgy of violence,
intimidation and routine inspection of the NRZ's books a year ago and
efforts to stop their activities have been in vain as they apparently enjoy
the patronage of top government officials.

Authoritative sources within
the NRZ told The Standard last week that they were living in fear of the
gang which monitors the general manager, line managers and junior staff
members, apparently without the authority of the parastatal.

"These
people are causing havoc at the NRZ. They say they are on a clean up mission
of the parastatal and report their activities directly to the Minister of
Transport and Communications. Employees suspected of corruption are tortured
and intimidated," said one of the senior managers who declined to be
identified.

He said the top management was working under fear as the gang
visited their offices unannounced, often forcibly taking away their files
and demanding explanations about the parastatal's financial
matters.

"We don't know what they are up to but our conclusion is that
they have been tasked by some politicians to monitor every employee as NRZ
unions are known to have strong links with the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC," he said.

The sources said armed NRZ security
guards, at the instigation of management, last week besieged the offices of
the "crack force" and forced Siziba and his gang to stop their operations
and leave.

But a senior manager said: "These attempts appear to be in
vain as the gang is still terrorising workers although it is now operating
from the Mechanical Workshops where Siziba is employed as a maintenance
auditor.

"His job entails keeping stock of NRZ equipment at our workshops
and nothing else. He is not in charge of auditing NRZ books because he is
not qualified for that job. Members of his gang are also not qualified to
inspect or audit our books. They are outsiders who have no idea of auditing
procedures" he said.

Contacted for comment, Siziba refused to talk to
The Standard citing NRZ regulations that prohibit staff talking to the
Press. But he confirmed the "clean up" saying this was an on-going exercise.
"The campaign is an ongoing exercise within the parastatal but I cannot tell
you more than this," said Siziba.

NRZ public relations manager Fanuel
Masikati said the parastatal was aware of the gang and efforts were being
made to stop the "crack force's" unauthorised activities.

He declined
to comment on suggestions that the gang was linked to top government
officials who were monitoring NRZ unions linked to the MDC.

Efforts to
get a comment from the Minister of Transport and Communications, Christopher
Mushohwe, were fruitless.

Zanu PF politicians turn on Govt

Zim Standard

By Godfrey
Mutimba

DISGRUNTLED Zanu PF politicians in Masvingo departed from the
norm and rounded on the government accusing it of paying little attention to
development projects, saying this had resulted in perennial food shortages
in the province, The Standard has learnt.

In contributions during
a recent pre-budget consultative meeting at the Civic Centre, speakers
attacked the Ministry of Finance for marginalising Masvingo province in
development projects compared to other provinces.

They blamed the
government for deliberately overlooking the province, as most potential
projects that could boost the development of the province were not getting
sufficient funding from the Ministry of Finance.

David Chapfika, the
Deputy Minister of Finance, attended the meeting.

Senate aspirant,
Dzikamai Mavhaire of the 'Mugabe must go' fame slammed the government for
staggering projects that could help curb food insecurity in the
province.

He cited the giant Tokwe-Mukorsi Dam project, which has so far
remained uncompleted and demanded to know why the government was failing to
fund the project that has the potential of transforming Masvingo into the
breadbasket of Zimbabwe through irrigation schemes.

"Why is it that
new projects are funded when the existing ones are still incomplete? In 1984
the construction of Tokwe-Mukorsi needed only $60 million but now it
requires billions of dollars to complete.

"The project has long-term
benefits in the province and once completed we will never again suffer from
food insecurity,'' said the outspoken politician.

The Masvingo
politicians demanded that Chapfika take their complaints to central
government which must act decisively on Masvingo which they said was the
only province with the greatest number of unfinished projects.

Among
other incomplete projects in Masvingo are the Mpandawana - Kurai road,
Masvingo - Renco road and the Nuanetsi projects - all abandoned in their
early stages.

Higher and Tertiary Education minister, Stan Mudenge,
took a swipe at the manner government funds were disbursed to various
projects saying Masvingo was among the most disadvantaged province in terms
of development.

Mudenge said: "Our province always suffers from massive
food shortages but can do a lot in helping industry. We have a lot of
potential here but if we ask for resources they don't come.

"We have
the largest number of dams in the country but we don't get funds to buy
irrigation equipment to boost our agriculture. If you look at the mining
industry it is now crumbling. We have the Mashaba mines that have piles and
piles of Asbestos fibre that is on demand in many countries and if we ask
for resources to exploit it we are told there is no fuel yet other provinces
get the fuel they need,'' charged Mudenge.

Other politicians who
concurred with Mavhaire and Mudenge were Bikita West MP, Claudius Makova,
Chief Fortune Charumbira and Masvingo provincial governor, Willard
Chiwewe.

However Chapfika defended his ministry saying suspension of
projects was country-wide due to lack of foreign currency.

"The
government is not sidelining Masvingo. The problems of foreign currency and
fuel shortages have forced the government to suspend various projects around
the country,'' Chapfika said.

Witchcraft fears derail children's feeding schemes

Zim Standard

By
Caiphas Chimhete

NYANYADZI - Suspicion of witchcraft among villagers in
Gudyanga village in Chimanimani district of Manicaland province is derailing
children's supplementary feeding programmes, impacting negatively on the
health status of children in the hunger-stricken area, The Standard has
established.

Villagers have withdrawn their children from the feeding
scheme for fear they could be bewitched at the feeding centres, which are
located at individual people's homesteads.

This is despite that most
of the parents are very poor and cannot afford a balanced diet for their
children. As a result, the children show clear signs of malnutrition -
potbellied stomachs and matchstick legs.

Villagers who spoke to The
Standard last week confirmed withdrawing their children saying they feared
that their children could be bewitched or poisoned at the feeding
centres.

Very few feeding centres operate from clinics or
schools.

"We want the food to be given to each household so that each
family can prepare its own meals. As it is, people are not very keen to have
their children fed at the centres because we do not trust each other," said
one of the villagers.

Under the Witchcraft Suppression Act it is a
crime to accuse anyone of being a witch or having bewitched
someone.

The villagers are against the food - mostly porridge - being
prepared at people's homesteads. The beneficiaries, including Aids orphans,
converge at the centres twice a day for meals. Parents take turns to prepare
the food for the children.

When The Standard visited Mapandani
feeding centre at headman Makiwa's homestead in Gudyanga village last week,
child showing signs of malnutrition were jostling to get their
allocations.

Out of the estimated 50 children who are supposed have their
food at the centre, only 21 are turning up.

"People here do not trust
each other and that's why some withdrew their children. They believe in
witchcraft too much. However, others are just lazy to come and prepare food
for their children so they prefer not to send them," said Panganayi Makiwa,
who heads Mapandani feeding centre.

Dispelling villagers' fears, she said
no child had fallen ill since the start of the programme some three months
ago. She attributed the suspicion of witchcraft to the general mistrust
among the villagers.

At another feeding centre at Nhachi village,
villagers agreed to share the food equally before it is prepared.

The
World Food Programme and Save The Children - Norway are among the relief
agencies providing food to vulnerable children and families in the
area.

South Africa-based regional public affairs officer, Mike Huggins,
said the organisation had not received reports of parents withdrawing their
children from the programme for fear of witchcraft. "I have not heard about
that," said Huggins, whose organisation provides maize meal, porridge,
cooking oil, sugar and salt.

He said as of September, the WFP was
assisting about 230 pre-school children and 80 000 orphans in the country.
"But all in all, we are feeding about 1 million people in Zimbabwe and the
number is increasing on a monthly basis," said Huggins.

Lazy ministers deserve censure

Zim Standard

Comment

THE
basis of appointing ministers is the expertise, knowledge and performance
they bring to the Cabinet. However, since 2000 there is overwhelming
evidence that despite President Robert Mugabe's "Development Cabinet"
ministers are subverting attempts or decisions to improve conditions in
Zimbabwe.

Last week, the sacked chairperson of the National Railways of
Zimbabwe (NRZ), Dr Sam Geza, described how the Minister of Transport and
Communications, Christopher Mushohwe, was "the major stumbling block in the
implementation of the parastatal's turnaround programme". It was one of many
examples of either neglect or oversight that subverts attempts at
development.Prior to Geza's disclosure, evidence of rampant abuse of
vehicles and fuel allocation at the Ministry of Higher Education and
Technology had been uncovered by an internal audit. Both examples point to
an urgent need not only to deal with, but to make government ministers
accountable for failure of their ministries to perform. Both cases
demonstrate extreme lack of supervision.

It is partly as a result of
concern over failure to perform that there is growing argument appointments
need to be performance-linked and that there should be a scorecard that
forms the basis for appointing, reappointing or dropping ministers from the
Cabinet.

The case of the ministry of Transport and Communications shows
what appears to be a clear pattern of disregard of professional opinion and
advice - in this case by the NRZ board - by a government minister, resulting
in the parastatal missing out on accessing resources from the Reserve
Bank.

But more significantly, the allegations appear to explain the
paralysis obtaining at the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe, the
national carrier, Air Zimbabwe, the protracted industrial disputes at the
postal services, Zimpost, at the telecommunications operator TelOne and the
unresolved case of unavailability of mobile telephone lines at NetOne, when
the parallel market is awash with the lines, but at a premium. The collapse
of both Zimpost and TelOne has given rise to alternative courier and
telecommunications operators respectively.

It is a remarkable
coincidence that all the examples of sectors that are losing their market
share and competitive edge fall under one ministry.

Reports that a band
of war veterans is terrorising management and staff at the NRZ headquarters
in Bulawayo amid suggestions that they enjoy the protection of the minister
raise questions of what the intended goal of disruption to the parastatal's
activities could be.

The tragedy is that there are no significant
indicators of positivity emerging from the paralysis.

Geza acquitted
himself well as a Permanent Secretary and it is his performance during his
tenure in government that we believe influenced his appointment as
chairperson of the NRZ board.

But last week he spoke of the frustration
and humiliation his board endured at the hands of the Minister of Transport
and Communications and more importantly how the minister was misleading Vice
President Joice Mujuru, who oversees parastatals and local
authorities.

Now that the real cancer has been diagnosed and confirmed,
the overburdened taxpayers expect bold and decisive action against those
identified as the major obstacles to turning around the fortunes of the
parastatal.

The rapid decline of the NRZ from being a key player in the
transport sector in this country, impacts on the capacity and performance of
other industries that are/used to be dependent on it for movement of their
goods and raw materials. The significant contributory role the NRZ plays in
Zimbabwe's economic recovery cannot be overstated.

The second case of
impeding the agenda of the "Development Cabinet" is that of the Ministry of
Higher Education and Technology, where an audit uncovered pervasive
corruption in which billions of taxpayers' funds were allegedly
misappropriated through rampant abuse of vehicles and fuel
allocation.

Sadly the case at the Ministry of Higher Education and
Technology is in the contrast to the working conditions of
teachers/lecturers and their subsequent neglect on the one hand and the
ministry's penchant to spend on luxury vehicles on the other. It is failure
to provide incentives and resources for enhanced productivity and staff
retention that has resulted in a brain drain not only from the ministry but
the country.

Agriculture is another well-documented and unparalleled
mess.

The ministers concerned should be held accountable. We believe
there are sufficient grounds for the Parliamentary Portfolio committees and
the recently established Anti-Corruption Commission to start demonstrating
they have some spunk.

Failure to act can only give succour to deviant
ministries. The cases cited here provide sufficient ammunition for axing
ministers from Cabinet at the next reshuffle.

Fuel to cost more

MOTORISTS should
brace themselves for a fuel price increase amid revelations that fuel
importers have made representations to the Ministry of Energy and Power
Development for a review of price.

Although the actual price could not be
ascertained, Standardbusiness heard last week that it was in the region of
$50 000 per litre and would likely to be effected after the Senate
elections.The price of fuel was last increased in September. Currently the
pump price of fuel is $$22 300 per litre for petrol while diesel is sold at
$20 800 per litre. Designated service stations sell fuel at US$1 per litre
while the illegal black market is selling the precious liquid at $100 000
per litre.

Industry sources say the adjustment of the fuel price was
meant to provide a lifeline to the importers who indicated that they were
selling fuel at a loss.

Fuel importers, sources said, had called for
an adjustment of the price following the introduction of the forex
floatation system last month.

Taking principled stand on MDC crisis

Zim Standard

sundayopinion by
Shari Eppel

RECENT events within the MDC raise a fundamental challenge to
civil society. From 1999 until early 2005, many in civil society perceived
themselves as having aims and values in common with the MDC, such as the
desire to return Zimbabwe to greater democracy, repeal repressive
legislation, and promote the equality and accountability of all
Zimbabweans

Above all, support for the MDC has been driven by the desire
for an accountable political leadership, with limited powers invested in any
individual - of a leadership that cannot defy the law with impunity, as
other Zimbabwean leaders have done for one hundred years.Since October
2004, there has been a growing element of thuggery within the MDC, with its
President, Morgan Tsvangirai, failing to condemn intra-party violence
against certain members of his own leadership. In the wake of the 2005
elections, this violence escalated, with several senior MDC office bearers
being stripped naked and sjamboked by MDC youths, inside MDC party
headquarters.

Two officials had bones broken by these party youths. A
decision of the National Council to fire the youth - who are facing criminal
charges - was subverted by the President of the MDC; a few days after their
dismissal, he insisted on re-employing them as his bodyguards. When there
was a call for a further internal inquiry into the violence, Tsvangirai
tried to sack his fellow top five officials.

It was pointed out that
this was unconstitutional - that the President did not have the sole power
to dismiss his senior colleagues, and the dismissals did not take
effect.

In September 2005, Tsvangirai showed contempt for the MDC
constitution and the outcome of a democratic vote by the National Council of
MDC: the council voted by a

narrow margin in favour of participation
in the Senate elections. In defiance of both this outcome and the
constitution, Tsvangirai publicly announced the intention of MDC to boycott
the November senatorial elections. This action has resulted in a serious
split in the party. In 26 constituencies out of 50, candidates across seven
provinces have submitted nomination papers and will contest the Senate
elections. Those supporting participation are claiming that the issue is no
longer the relevance of the Senate; it is that of not allowing a leader who
defies his own constitution to get his way, de facto.

They say that
their President has increasingly shown signs of usurping more power than he
is entitled to, and the line has to be drawn somewhere. The National Council
voted to participate and this decision must be respected.

Currently,
therefore, four of the MDC top six leadership are holding rallies
encouraging participation - and the President of the party is holding
rallies in their wake, calling for a boycott.

The situation is
ridiculous and confusing to most Zimbabweans. However, it is clear that a
vote in this election has become not so much a vote for a particular
senatorial candidate, as a vote against a national leader who wants to break
rules and promote violence within his own party with impunity.

Civics
is currently facing a key challenge: will civil society speak out against
those elements in the MDC that now believe themselves above the constitution
of their own party, in the same way that they have condemned Zanu PF for
lawless, unethical behaviour?

So far, civil society has failed to condemn
or even reprimand Tsvangirai in any convincing way. Human rights NGOs risk
being severely compromised if they

continue to remain publicly silent
on this issue - and Zimbabwe risks one dictator being replaced by
another.

People are desperate not to see the MDC disintegrate at this
stage, after so many have invested so much - even their lives - in the
struggle for democracy in the last five years. Yet civics must decide - is
it enough to say "Mugabe must go", regardless of what or who replaces him,
or is now the time to make a stand and to state unequivocally, that whatever
the cost, Zimbabwe will not tolerate leaders who will not publicly condemn
political violence by elements in their own party, who do not abide by the
will of the majority and who do not abide by the rules?

If MDC does
disintegrate as a coherent political force in the next six months, which
seems a real possibility, civic organisations will need to stand for
principle: they cannot waver now. It is the role of human rights activists
and legal NGOs to document intra-party MDC violence as impartially as they
have documented Zanu PF violence against the MDC. In six months from now,
there could be a vacuum as far as truly democratic and principled politics
is concerned.

Civics will need to be that voice; if or when new political
forces emerge, civics must judge such forces against clear principles of
democracy, inclusiveness and accountability. The loss of an ethical
political alternative to Zanu PF, if it happens, is going to leave millions
without hope. Civics will need to lobby and document even more consistently
on behalf of the increasingly repressed and voiceless poor and must prepare
to capture the tragedy of this historical moment for future generations.
Civics could soon be faced with the enormous task of trying to empower and
rebuild some notion of democracy in a nation of dashed hopes, with a
devastated economy, great hunger - and a proliferation of unscrupulous
political parties.

Zim Standard Letters

Mugabe must repent for the sake of the
nation

IT is high time the whole country faced up to the reality of
the disaster of our land reform. Our agriculture has totally collapsed even
though from his helicopter cockpit, the minister responsible for the sector
thinks otherwise.

Poverty has gripped the nation with a vengeance
mainly because of the country's policies on land and other sectors of our
economy. After everything has been said and done, the blame lies squarely at
President Robert Mugabe's feet (as captain of the Titanic). The usual
criticism of other leaders in the West is old and tired.For once at this
late hour, I would like to hear our President admit failure and accept
responsibility for creating the disaster the country is facing. After all to
err is human. At the rate the President is ruining the country, his late
Jesuits mentors must be turning in their graves seeing the destructive path
taken by their product.

It is a historic fact that the Jesuits have been
in the fore front of preaching the word of God and improving farming in the
country. Why does the President not emulate his mentors by donning a work
suit and encouraging people to work on the farms instead of lecturing to
people?

Of course, the President's advanced age may not permit that but
being seen in overalls at the farms can be inspirational enough. It is
counter-productive to force land onto people who are not farmers at heart
but greedy cellphone speculators.

Swallow your pride for the good of
Zimbabwe and recall commercial farmers back on to their old farms not
because whites are better than our black farmers but because of their long
history in farming, their financial resources and because it is the right
thing to do.

Mugabe began to act strangely when white farmers gave their
support to the MDC, forgetting that Zanu PF was the initial recipient of
white farmers' largesse. If there was ever a stark example of sour grapes,
Mugabe is a typical example. The President gladly received the commercial
farmers' financial donations when it suited him but now he hates them with a
passion.

Another advice for the President is that he should get rid of
his current group of advisers because it has led him astray. He should go
back to the general public and select a new group of unsophisticated
advisers. He should avoid fancy degreed advisers who have contributed
nothing towards the good of the country.

The President should also
make peace with teachers who are closest to society than any other
profession. He should make use of retired teachers by encouraging them to go
into farming. Most if not all teachers would welcome land as part of their
retirement package. But alas, once retired, the former teachers are cast
away like useless rubbish.

Recruited retired teachers can work very
effectively with commercial farmers since many of them will have the
literacy advantage and record keeping experience compared to most new black
farmers. Teachers are also notoriously law-abiding people. Retired teachers
can team up with commercial farmers and the new land owners to work together
and become a force to reckon with.

Another bitter pill for the President
is to relieve the Commissioner of Police, Augustine Chihuri for what he did
and did not do as leader of the country's police force. Our police force was
once upon a time a force respected by everybody especially children. It was
always a joy to watch smartly uniformed police officers assisting school
children and elderly people to cross busy streetintersections.

But
thanks to Chihuri, today's police force is dreaded by all and sundry.
Chihuri should be replaced by an apolitical man or woman whose main and
foremost task will be to clean up the police force.

The new force
should then go into the farming regions and remove all those unwelcome
elements terrorising the farming community. After the farms, the new force
should investigate our judiciary which has been badly soiled by politicians
and weed out corrupt elements.

The President should not listen to the
likes of Didymus Mutasa who benefited from the generosity of the late Guy
Clutton-Brock, who established Cold Comfort Farm. Once the President has
committed himself to restoring real order, he should not be swayed in any
way by anybody.

Forgiving the President is going to be a difficult task
for many Zimbabweans but let us look at what South Africa did - let us have
our own Truth Commission. Through the commission Zimbabweans will be able to
formulate ways of forgiving each other.

Let us bite the bullet and
act now.

Teacher

Masvingo

---

Hidden agendas of
Zim cricket officials' threaten the sport

ZIMBABWE Cricket has once
again been humiliated but this time by Kenya who defeated Zimbabwe in all
the matches played.

We also read reports that officials from Mashonaland
together with police were interrupting club games as the power struggle goes
on to ensure that those in charge of Zimbabwe Cricket continue to manipulate
the provinces with the aim of ensuring they remain in office.Sadly,
those manipulating Zimbabwe Cricket have shown very little interest in the
game but have shown without any doubt that all their hidden agendas are
designed to retain power and control the money earned by Zimbabwe Cricket as
a test playing nation. The damage done to the sport is enormous and it would
seem to interested observers that they are happy to do anything to avoid
probing questions and transparency. Isn't it time that those supporters of
the game (including the Sports Commission) call for a new democratic
constitution and a forensic audit to finally answer the questions and
suspicions that everyone needs answered, including many of those employed by
the union.

The modus operandi of Zimbabwe Cricket is to intimidate and
bully all those who query or question their actions. Lately the intimidation
has moved from the chairman's use of a "rented crowd" organized by Zimbabwe
Cricket from as far afield as Mutare to try to stop awkward questions being
asked.

However, the bullying and intimidation of provinces and
administrators who question Zimbabwe Cricket's actions and intentions
continues. I think I am right in saying there are at least three defamation
cases against Zimbabwe Cricket officials awaiting to go through the law
courts and three labour cases all emanating from their cowboy hire-and-fire
management style. A clique within ZC have been trying to manipulate and
subvert the Mash CA and now the Midlands CA to try to entrench complicit
"yes" men in the provinces.

Any question anyone may have had about the
lack of transparency by Zimbabwe Cricket was surely confirmed by the recent
annual general meeting held in Bulawayo . For the past 60 if not 100 years
the annual general meeting has been held in Harare nearly always at a place
and time to ensure maximum participation of those supporting the game. This
year it was held in Bulawayo at 9.00 AM which despite what Zimbabwe Cricket
might claim, was designed to ensure as small an attendance as possible and
as few questions as possible. There were two policemen at the door to ensure
that journalists were not allowed in for the first time in 100 years but a
motley "rented crowd" was allowed whose job it was to jeer questioners to
shut them up on the pretext that they also wanted to ask questions. They
failed to ask even one question.

One question was raised at the AGM
why the constitution was not adhered to in regard to the accounts and
chairman's report. The chairman apologised claiming the auditors were under
pressure and asked that this discrepancy be approved by convention as it had
been known to occur in the past.

In my view this was done deliberately to
ensure that participants of the meeting were given as little time as
possible to study the accounts and ask what may be considered awkward
questions. This selective use of convention indicates the double standards
employed by the ZC administration. Let me explain;

* Convention
shows that the AGM should be held in Harare where the largest number of
stake holders could attend at a time considered convenient to most.

*
Convention shows that the press were always welcome at all AGMs.

*
Convention shows that every honorarium paid to an official of the cricket
board was disclosed by way of a note in the accounts. Yet the payment some
three years ago of 50 000 pounds to the chairman was not mentioned anywhere
but "hidden" in the accounts. Asked what made up directors expenses, the
answer from the then CEO was "meetings and travel expenses
only".

Where could the 50 000 pounds be shown if it wasn't in directors
expenses. This all happened in the presence of the board which included a
headmaster and a retired judge all of whom made no effort to correct what
appears to have been a deliberately misleading answer.

May I suggest
that this non-transparent board call a special general meeting to field all
questions to vindicate themselves and clarify the rumours and stories that
abound which create so much suspicion and mistrust.

R A
Gripper

Borrowdale

Harare

-----

NetOne promotion: is
this real or another con trick?

PLEASE help the country expose the
fraud perpetrated by the cellphone company, NetOne.

Has there been a
winner of one of the four prizes offered by NetOne promotions? I am one of
thousands of people using the facility offered by NetOne but I have never
come across a winning card.The company has removed cheaper cellphone cards
from circulation. The public is now offered cards from as high as $50 000.
Phoning costs have increased but the service has deteriorated. Many NetOne
users have been scratching away hoping to win one of the attractive prizes
advertised only to be faced with the "play on to win", slogan.

There
is really no need for NetOne to launch such a false promotion since
customers will still buy the cards anyway. How many millions have to be
poured in to enable four lucky customers to win the four
prizes?

NetOne must do something about the poor service people are
getting from the cellphone company. I have been trying to contact one of my
daughters in Harare without any success.

All I received during the
past three days has been the message telling me the line is busy. Thank God
the machine does not charge me for giving me that negative information
otherwise I would have spent the whole $50 000 without speaking to my
daughter.

Can someone at NetOne explain this state of affairs? One would
do better to travel all the way to Harare by bus to talk to relatives there
than to rely on our phone systems. Please NetOne clean up your act otherwise
I will soon throw my cellphone into the deepest mineshaft in the
country.

Angry
Customer

Masvingo

---------

Zimbabwe can not afford luxury
of a useless Senate

ZIMBABWE is in a very serious crisis,
experiencing severe haemorrhaging politically and economically, because Zanu
PF doesn't care about people anymore.

The present predicament we, as
a nation, find ourselves trapped in was precipitated by very bad policies
authored by the government. This has become the death of knell of a once
very promising economy in Africa.Yet the Zanu PF government itself remains
in denial; they claim that they are not culpable and they refuse to own up
to their very costly blunders. In addition to their litany of blunders we
now have ex-detainees' gratuities and Senate elections.

Can we afford
to have such luxuries at this dire moment? More to the point - can our
economy afford these expenses and sustain development? In the first place do
we need a Senate and what is its role and relevance in our present
situation?

The government has certainly lost any sense of empathy
with the suffering people of Zimbabwe. The country is rapidly being consumed
by a myriad of problems and no-one in the Zanu PF leadership seems to
care.

Instead of the government taking measures to reduce its
expenditure, it is extending its benevolence to appease its faithful party
followers by giving them gratuities and re-introducing the Senate.

It
now seems whatever the government does these days, be it in introducing new
legislation or amendments to existing laws, it is all to its own advantage.
Its policies are designed to cement and consolidate its absolute control of
all facets of our lives.

Furthermore, they continually offer gifts and
favours such as farms and monetary loans to party followers and friends.
Such paternalism and nepotism are bound to fail.

The government needs
to be sensitive to the plight and feelings of the suffering masses because
they are God's creation and not State artefacts to be trifled
with.

Rev Fr Norbert T Fokisa O. Carm

St Killian's
Mission

Rusape

-----

This is warped
reasoning

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe was at his acerbic best once again,
calling the US ambassador to Zimbabwe, Christopher Dell, to go to hell. His
sin; he dared criticise Zanu PF's ruinous policies that have seen a once
prosperous nation reduced to a basket case.

By making what every sane
Zimbabwean should regard as constructive criticism, Dell is accused of
interferring in Zimbabwe's internal affairs. None of his critics, including
Mugabe, could refute Dell's statements with empirical evidence to show that
the envoy was wrong in his assessment of the situation.What it boils
down to is that as Zimbabweans we should just be left alone to mess up our
economy without interference.

It can only be in Zanu PF where you will
find this type of warped reasoning!

Hell
Bound

Harare

--------

MDC should discard political
prostitutes

EVEN when it is evidently clear that the State is on
fire, there are those who are part of the problem who will always be the
beneficiaries of the chaos. Such people will continue to sing while the
country burns.

In spite of all this, the government has got its
priorities misplaced, as has the ruling party itself. Members of Zanu PF are
falling over each other to please President Robert Mugabe and history has
proved that those who sing loudest have been rewarded the most.What this
hero-worshipping has only succeeded in achieving is perpetuation of the stay
in power by someone whose dictatorial tendencies are legendary. The country
we all pretend to love dearly is on fire and we expend our energies on
things that do not help the economy, which as we all know is in
tatters.

This is why the Governor of the Reserve Bank suggested
recently that there has to be a good relationship between Zimbabwe and
international financial institutions and ensuring there are people with
experience on the farms. This acknowledgement came after he realised that
without help from others we are doomed.

Sadly, the politicians have
not helped the central bank governor's cause. For example, President Mugabe
went on the offensive against the International Monetary Fund, while Didymus
Mutasa, the Minister of State for National Security, who is also responsible
for Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement, threatened a purge of commercial
farmers. We all know what happened after his announcement in
Masvingo.

If Zimbabwe entertains any hope of getting investors then the
statements by Mugabe and Mutasa were most unfortunate. They were as good as
shooting ourselves in the foot. No sane investor will be so foolish to take
such a high risk as investing in a place where there is no respect for
property rights, no clear economic policies and where there is no rule of
law.

Mugabe is tightening his grip on power and the amendments to the
Constitution are tailor-made to suit his political survival. But they could
be his greatest undoing because they show that he is prepared to go down
with this country. He simply does not care.

It is a fact that in any
organisation, such as the MDC, there will be differences of opinion. It is
healthy for the party and democracy. But it also true, that there could be
opportunists among the leaders who choose to ignore the basic principles
which laid down the foundation of the MDC.

The MDC should not become home
to political prostitutes. The time to stand by the founding principles of
the MDC is now.

Mamuse Maunganidze

Checheche

Chipinge
South

-----

MDC's great betrayal of the majority

MANY
people paid the supreme sacrifice in the belief of the possibility of a
genuine political alternative in the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC). But far from vindicating the belief in this possibility, the
MDC no longer looks any different from that which it seeks to
replace.

There can be no greater betrayal than this - that at the most
critical moment that the majority of its followers expect decisive
leadership, prevarication predominates the opposition.Morgan Tsvangirai
the leader of the MDC takes his party into three elections and loses.
Michael Howard of the Tories did not require so many humiliations before he
realised that someone better could position the Conservatives for a better
chance at wresting power from Tony Blair's New Labour.

Morgan Tsvangirai
believes in democracy, but when his party votes 33 to 31 for participation
in Senate elections, he cries foul and seeks to usurp all functions of the
MDC - in effect carrying out a coup d'etat. When will he learn to lose and
shut up?

If you go into any contest you undertake to accept one of two
things: accept that you have won, or that you have lost.

If there was
consultation at grassroots level, which led to the National Council's
decision, why is it necessary to go around the country trying to convince
people to do the opposite of what they had indicated to the MDC?

M
Mpofu

Fitchlea

Kwekwe

----

MDC must prove Tsvangirai
wrong on Senate elections

IT is interesting that those among the MDC
top six who are opposing Morgan Tsvangirai's stand on Senate elections only
have the party's constitution as their defence. Let me remind them that even
President Robert Mugabe is ruling the country according to the
constitution!

The important thing is what do the people of Zimbabwe who
are MDC supporterswant? Instead of them talking about the MDC constitution,
they should be

reminded that when a constitution goes against the wishes
of the majority,

then it is a bad constitution. Democracy is about the
wishes of the

majority, not the top six, not the National Council or
Politburo!

So to Professor Welshman Ncube, Gibson Sibanda, Gift
Chimanikire, Paul Themba Nyathi, Fletcher Dulini-Ncube and others, the
challenge for them is to

prove that the majority of the MDC
supporters, not the council, prefer

participation in the Senate
elections.

Tsvangirai is saying the people do not want participation;
prove him wrong!

To me Tsvangirai would be a dictator if the Ncube
faction proves that the majority of the MDC supporters prefer participation
in the Senate elections, otherwise it is the Ncube faction that would be
full of dictators hiding behind the MDC constitution.

Is the Ncube
faction hiding behind the constitution to avoid going back to

the people?
I did not hear of any consultations with the people of Zimbabwe

when the
Bill was brought to Parliament or when Mugabe talked of

re-introducing
the Senate. Or were they afraid of what they might find out?

Are they
afraid to admit that Zanu PF has once again out-manoeuvred them?

From the
day the Bill was first read in Parliament, the MDC should have had

a
counter strategy because it was obvious that it was going to be law
given

the majority of Zanu PF MPs in Parliament.

There is only one
way to end the infighting in MDC. Go back to the

people whom you claim to
represent, or else you are breeding dictators who

hide behind
constitutions and ignore the people they claim to represent.